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PRESS RELEASE: Sony World Photography Awards 2010 Judges announced

Leading figures from the international photographic community are announced today, 3 December 2009, as the jury members of three separate award programmes of the Sony World Photography Awards 2010.

The Honorary Jury for the main annual competition comprises 12 specially selected World Photography Organisation Academy members. For the professional awards selection, these 12 members will initially judge within their respective photographic genres of expertise. Later they will come together as one collective group to select the overall winners in both the amateur and professional programmes, and the overall winner, the I’Iris D’Or.

The official pre-selection committee of the amateur competition is iStockphoto, the internet’s original member-generated image and design community. iStockphoto is the world’s busiest online image market which has helped thousands of amateur photographers increase their skills and go on to sell their work professionally.

A jury for the Student Focus Programme is also selected from the Academy members.

Astrid Merget, Creative Director of the Sony World Photography Awards, comments: ‘It is a great honour to announce the judges of the 2010 Awards. We are privileged to have such an extraordinarily influential jury – from photographers to photo editors, gallery owners and film-makers. The quality of submissions this year has been impressively high, and we look forward to working closely with the jury to discover the winners for the 2010 awards”.

Key dates for the Sony World Photography Awards 2010

2010

4 January Closing date for professional and amateur categories 12 January Lifetime Achievement Award announcement 19-29 January Global Tour exhibition, Art Work Space, London 23 February Shortlist announcement 23 March Category winners’ announcement

Created by the World Photography Organisation, the World Photography Awards (WPA), sponsored by Sony launched in 2007. The World Photography Organisation (WPO) supports professional, amateur and student photography, lending a global platform for the photographic industry to communicate, converge and showcase current trends in Photojournalism, Fine Art and Commercial Photography. Delivering various initiatives and programmes across this global community under the “World Photography” brand, these programmes involve the photographer in commercial, cultural and educational activities within the many industry sectors, whilst also creating cultural activities for the public to participate in. Also currently included within the World Photography portfolio are the World Photography Student Focus Competition; the World Photography Awards Global Tour, the World Photography Festival, the World Photography Focus Programme and the recently launched World Photography Collection.

About Sony: Sony is a leading global innovator of audio, video, communications and information technology products for both the consumer and professional markets. Sony is renowned for its audio-visual products, such as the BRAVIA™ LCD High Definition (HD) television, Cyber-shot™ digital camera, Handycam® camcorder and Walkman® MP3 player as well as its VAIO™ personal computers and HD professional broadcast equipment, highlighted by the XDCAM™ HD. Offering a complete end-to-end HD value chain and with its electronics, music, pictures, game and online businesses, Sony is one of the world’s leading digital entertainment brands, employing approximately 170,000 people worldwide.

Through its long-term football partnerships as an official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League until 2012, Official FIFA Partner until 2014 and global sponsor of the FIFA World Cup™ in 2010 and 2014, Sony is inspiring a sense of excitement for the millions of football fans around the world.

“Sony”, “WALKMAN”, “VAIO”, “Cyber-shot”, “Handycam”, “BRAVIA” and “XDCAM” are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sony Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.